IBS

We have all heard of IBS: Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It tends to be diagnosed when no other reason can be found for the symptoms that are occurring. The most common symptoms are bloating, pain, swinging bowel movements, uncomfortable feelings after eating, and even fatigue. People experience a range of diverse symptoms which can be attributed to IBS.

In my experience, I have found that IBS-like symptoms can be caused by food intolerance. Many of these symptoms can be greatly reduced and even eliminated by identifying the food intolerance culprits for that individual. Big attackers like gluten and dairy are not always the cause and avoiding these foods is a blanket fix which does not suit everyone. Have you tried cutting one or both of these out, only to find your symptom picture stay the same or even become worse? What if you swapped cow milk products over to almond milk and were intolerant to almonds in the first place? Your symptoms would certainly worsen.

It is also important to consider if there is enough good bacteria in your tummy. If there are adequate digestive enzymes to break down the food so it does not sit and ferment and cause bloating. And why food is stagnating in your stomach and not being digested and moved through as it should. If this is occurring it is unlikely you will be getting all the nutrients out of your food, making you tired, irritable and with possible vitamin or mineral deficiencies.

As all the blood rushes to your stomach to assist this difficult digestion process, fatigue can overwhelm the mind and this is when sugar cravings may become a problem, or simply an inability to complete the task in front of you. How do you feel after lunch? Dinner? Do you need to sit down and rest, or even lie down if you are at home? Do you find it difficult to concentrate at work after lunch? All of these things point to the possibility of food intolerance or a poor digestive capacity.

There is an easy food intolerance test which has helped many of my clients. Avoiding the foods that are causing your symptoms is an easy fix; you just need to find out what they are. Healing the digestive system is integral to good health. Here lies the soul of our body and mind. Without a fit and well digestive process we would have very little immune capacity, and our body would receive little nutrition from all the beautiful foods we put in it.